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Re: Michael Crichton dies
That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific
thinking
during the last decade of his life. <<<
To be fair, this wasn't a sudden turn of events; as much as I enjoy his
novels, they are laced with anti-science and anti-scientific method
philosophy. That includes the JP novels; the first one was more subtle
in its "scientists are irresponsible frankenstein-monster creators with
no judgement" theme that is a common character-foil, while the second
JP was much more overt, ending the novel with a full frontal assault on
scientific inference, even questioning the reality atomic theory
because you "can't see" sub-atomic particles.
For Crichton's fiction work I would create the new genre
"technofiction" rather than say he wrote science fiction.
Cheers,
Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-3466 ext. 230
Cell: (307) 921-8333
www.skeletaldrawing.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu>
To: ddkrentz@charter.net; MKIRKALDY@aol.com
Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 6:28 am
Subject: RE: Michael Crichton dies
From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
On Behalf Of David Krentz
I think we all owe a lot to Crichton, JP was a huge influence
on a new generation of scientists, artists and closet
dino-enthusiasts world wide (movie and book).
That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific
thinking
during the last decade of his life. His irresonsible promotion of
non-scientific counterclaims against climate and paleoclimate research
reached the very highest levels of power: "State of Fear" was required
reading by Senator Inhofe's (himself a climate change denier) Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works. When George W. Bush wanted to
meet with a climate expert he didn't get a climatologist from NOAA or
NASA
or a paleoclimatologist from USGS. Instead, he brought in Crichton.
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661
Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796
Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Department of Geology
Building 237, Room 1117
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742 USA